Justine

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The biggest problem, however, is the theme of the book itself. Or perhaps not the theme, but the recurring elements. In brief, our protagonist cheats on his girlfriend Melissa with Justine, who is in turn cheating on her husband Nessim. So far, so standard. The difficulty comes when our unnamed protagonist and Justine spend much of their time lamenting their infidelity, but unable to help themselves. Durrell is clearly trying to make some philosophical statements about love and life, but I simply felt that the narrator and Justine were fairly shallow people that I would not much like. The concept of the Quartet appears to be that the first three books tell the same story from different perspectives. The concept of Justine, at least, is best described by Durrell in one of the ‘workpoints’ included in this edition:

which T.S. Eliot introduced with extraordinary praise, and "Cefalu" (1947), which was better; but neither of them prepared me for a book that demands comparison with the very best books of our century and specifically, since Though tragic love is the central concern of the novel, there are also hints at a deeper symbolic dimension in the form of the Kabbalah, which the main characters all devoutly study. Additionally, there are initial inklings of a socio-political narrative dealing with the workings of the British secret service, [4] a story-line that becomes much more extended and eventually takes centre-stage in the next two books of the quartet, Balthazar and, especially, Mountolive.Nicholas Boulton offers a masterful performance of this first volume of Lawrence Durrell’s famed Alexandria Quartet. Boulton’s rich voice, whether persuasive with seduction or throaty with frustration, captures the experience of an unnamed narrator as he succumbs to the charms of 1940s Alexandria, Egypt, and a few of its most alluring denizens – the enigmatic ‘Jewess’, Justine; her Coptic Christian husband, Nessim; Balthasar, a master of Kabbalah; and Melissa, the narrator’s tragic girlfriend. Driven by character and description, the astonishing prose bursts with such images as ‘the shops filling and emptying like lungs in the Rue des Soeurs’ and ‘far from the lime-laden dust of those summer afternoons’. All this, plus a story of misplaced passion, Boulton savours and delivers with crisp enunciation and an appreciation that keeps one listening. Zahlan, Anne R. "City as Carnival: Narrative as Palimpsest: Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet." The Journal of Narrative Technique 18 (1988): 34–46. Bowker, Gordon. Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell. New York: St. Martin's P, 1997. Having disintegrated, we seek integrity, but first we need "an integrating spark" with which to achieve it. Perhaps, if we don't seek or find it in God, we hope that we will find it in love.

Sometimes you discover a new author and know you’re going to be friends for life. A one-sided friendship but you know you’ll be better off for it. The improved toward the end, when I felt I had a better grasp of events, but that’s also when the plot finally speeds up, which may have just as much to do with it. I even have a mild interest in seeing how the early part of the book unfolded, now that I know the story – but not near enough interest to actually re-read it. We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behaviour and even thought in the measure to w In this plain courting of martyrdom, I realized that we showed out love at its hollowest, its most defective. Drama Shakespeare Other Drama Other Poetry Junior Classics Young Adult Classics Collections& Sets UnabridgedLiving on this bare promontory, snatched every night from darkness by Arcturus, far from the lime-laden dust of those summer afternoons, I see at last that none of us is properly to be judged for what happened in the past. It is the city which should be judged though we, its children, must pay the price. Scobie is a sort of protozoic profile in fog and rain for he carries with him a sort of English weather, and he is never happier than when he can sit over a microscopic wood-fire in winter and talk…Whenever he speaks of the past it is in series of short dim telegrams– as if already communications were poor, the weather inimical to transmission.”

a b Jay Rayner (14 September 1991). "Inside Story: Daddy Dearest - The writer Lawrence Durrell cast a long, dark shadow over the short and troubled life of his daughter, Sappho". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 13 October 2020– via Google Groups. Morrison, Ray. A Smile in His Mind's Eye: A Study of the Early Works of Lawrence Durrell. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2005.To be fair, I have to show you what you must deal with before things start moving along. The following lines begin with the narrator’s thoughts and then are followed by Justine’s in quotes. It's the role of the author or artist to detect and record these moments that will collectively live on in perpetuity in the form of a creative work: Ah Clea! The numinous, unknowable Clea, the painter of victims of venereal disease - a minor one of which I was recovering from myself. "I do not deny myself love," she said. "I am living in the beauty of an achieved relationship with a woman."

Three of the novels of the quartet carry names of major characters, Justine, Balthazar and Clea. Mount Olive is the third volume. Prospero's Cell: A guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corcyra [Corfu] (1945; republished 2000) ( ISBN 0-571-20165-2) In 1952, Eve had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised in England. Durrell moved to Cyprus with their daughter Sappho Jane, buying a house and taking a position teaching English literature at the Pancyprian Gymnasium to support his writing. He next worked in public relations for the British government during the local agitation for union with Greece. He wrote about his time in Cyprus in Bitter Lemons, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. In 1954, he was selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Durrell left Cyprus in August 1956. Political agitation on the island and his British government position resulted in his becoming a target for assassination attempts. [11] :27 Justine and The Alexandria Quartet [ edit ] I don't want you to read what I wrote and get the mistaken idea that this book is actually exciting. It isn't. It's the most boring and pedantic version of hedonism that I've ever had the displeasure of reading about.

Haag, Michael. Vintage Alexandria: Photographs of the City 1860–1960. Cairo and New York: The American U of Cairo P, 2008. [Includes an introduction on the historical, social and literary significance of Alexandria, and extensively captioned photographs of the cosmopolitan city and its inhabitants, including Durrell and people he knew.] Eventually Melissa, nominally the narrator’s lover, despairs of her place in his life (living with him much of time, but quite aware that he will always love Justine), so she decides to confront Nessim with Justine’s infidelity, making it impossible for him to continue pretending he doesn’t really know. All explodes, Justine flees to work in a commune in Palestine and seems to undergo a radical change of life. Ironically Melissa and Nessim fall in love and even have a child. Andrewski, Gene; Mitchell, Julian (23 April 1959). "Lawrence Durrell: The Art of Fiction No. 23 (interview)". The Paris Review . Retrieved 1 July 2006.